Andrew Lee, engineer who enjoys teaching robotics, pursues Ph.D. at University of Guelph

UMBC provides an environment in which professors are very easy to approach to assist with networking, job search, and research opportunities.

Andrew Lee has a passion for engineering and a goal to share that enthusiasm with younger students.

Lee has applied his mechanical engineering knowledge and STEM teaching skills as a camp assistant in the Take Flight Robotics program, a summer experience designed to engage and inspire high school interested in STEM fields. In 2015, Lee helped participants build and program their own small drones, and in 2016 he developed a new program to help them modify remote controlled cars using coding skills and microcontrollers.

Participants in the Take Flight Robotics summer program at UMBC; photo courtesy of Andrew Lee.

“The most rewarding aspect of Take Flight Robotics was realizing the potential of many gifted students,” said Lee. “When given the chance, they are very quick to learn.”

Lee’s master’s degree work is much more technical, but still with an eye on applications. He has focused on extracting the most accurate information possible about systems based on data from sensors, using intelligent methods including computer systems that are modeled on the human brain and nervous system.

This research earned Lee the offer of an Ontario Trillium Scholarship to pursue a Ph.D. in Ontario, Canada. Lee will continue his research in the Intelligent Control and Estimation Lab at the University of Guelph, where he will pursue his Ph.D.